More than 50 attend Dumfries criminal expungement clinic

A criminal expungement clinic may be coming to a neighborhood near you.

On Saturday, March 21, Prince William County Circuit Court Clerk Jacqueline Smith held the region’s first Expungement Clinic. The seminar, held in Dumfries, was meant to show residents how to have criminal charges removed from their records.

Defendants may have charges removed from their criminal record if a judge dismisses a case, decides not to prosecute, or if a defendant is found not guilty. The events are not meant to impart legal advice, said Smith.

According to Smith, the expungement process could take up to three months and involve at least five judicial and law enforcement agencies.

Here’s the expungement process in a nutshell:

• The defendant reviews their criminal record for expungable charges and files a form with the Office of the Circuit Court making a specific request.
• The defendant provides copies of the charge(s)/warrant and disposition they are filing to expunge. This can be obtained through the court where their criminal case was heard. These documents are served on the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
• The defendant is fingerprinted, and the case is added to a docket for hearing.
• A judge must rule whether to grant or deny the application.
• If the judge grants the application, the Clerk of the Circuit Court clarifies the court’s record of the charge and related documents and destroys the fingerprint card.

More than 50 poeple attended the clinic, held in Dumfries at the request of the town’s Vice Mayor, Monae Nickerson. The March 21 was the first in a series of new seminars Smith says is designed to make the functions of the county courthouse more accessible to residents.

Smith says:

This event was our first pilot for the Mobile Services Unit I am launching in July. The intention is to make the services we offer more accessible to constituents by bringing the Clerk to them- whether it be for something like this event or other customer services that are in demand like concealed handgun permits, marriage licenses, and other resident services.

Offering these services to the constituent can change lives- we heard many stories on Saturday, but the one that has really stuck with me is the young family who were rendered homeless because a criminal charge appeared on one of the parent’s background checks. It didn’t matter that the case was dismissed- the fact that it appeared on the record at all was enough to preclude the family from obtaining housing.

Situations like that one fly in the face of the constitutional guarantee of innocence until proven guilty. This family was serving a sentence for a crime without ever being proven guilty or being given the opportunity to defend themselves.

Smith serves the second-largest jurisdiction in Virginia. Earlier this year, we reported the Prince William County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office issue more concealed handgun permits in 2020 than any other jurisdiction in the state.